Monterey County Public Defender's Office sues county, Sheriff's Office over jail conditions

The Monterey County Public Defender's Office has filed a lawsuit that aims to remedy substandard health care in a jail that's "broken in every way," according to a complaint filed in federal court Thursday.

Calling the Monterey County Jail's medical and mental health care "woefully inadequate," the 72-page complaint lists a litany of allegations that, it says, combine with severe overcrowding to put the lives of staff and prisoners at risk.

A copy of the document was delivered Thursday to county counsel, Public Defender Jim Egar said.

Rosen, Bien, Galvan and Grunfeld, the San Francisco attorneys behind the overhaul of California's state prisons, filed the federal action, which is seeking a court order requiring the county and a private company "to protect prisoners from substantial risk of harm from other prisoners, to provide minimally adequate health care to prisoners, and to cease discriminating against and failing to provide accommodations to prisoners with disabilities and violating their due process rights."

Egar's office is seeking class-action certification for the case, which was initially filed on behalf of five jail inmates who, along with other unnamed prisoners, describe being denied prescribed medications, falling while trying to shower in their wheelchairs, suffering injuries from violent inmates and a host of other problems that plaintiffs say violate the U.S. Constitution.

Named in the lawsuit are the county, the Sheriff's Office and the Monterey-based firm California Forensic Medical Group, which provides contracted medical and mental health services to the jail and in 26 other counties around the state.

Dr. Taylor Fithian, owner of the company, said Friday he had not seen the filing and could not comment until he reads it.

The filing provides for additional defendants to be added later.

The Public Defender's Office threatened last month to file the suit if county officials did not meet to hash out remedies within 30 days.

"Severe overcrowding, outdated facilities and chronic under-staffing have created dangerous conditions in the jail, placing prisoners and staff at serious risk of injury and death," the complaint reads.

Among the allegations described in the suit:

· Delays in medical treatment.

One of the plaintiffs, Jesse Hernandez, said he waited eight months to have surgery to reverse his colostomy and ended up with intestinal swelling, bleeding, fevers and obstructed bowels. Another man who was waiting for a colostomy bag showed up in court "leaking feces all over his body" and was immediately ordered to a hospital by the judge, the complaint says.

· Deficient mental health care.

Glenda Hunter brought her prescription medications with her to the jail but they were taken away, the complaint alleges, even though she suffers from manic depression and dementia as well as diabetes, high blood pressure, bone cancer, seizures and a host of other ailments.

· Inadequate suicide prevention measures.

Although his survivors are not plaintiffs in the suit, the complaint mentions Joshua Claypole, who recently hanged himself in the jail and died several days later. The complaints says in the past three years there have been three suicides and a dozen attempts, and that shortcomings in supervision and suicide prevention "have had tragic consequences."

· Failure to provide reasonable accommodations for disabilities.

Robert Yancey, a deaf man with a speech impairment, was never provided an American Sign Language interpreter while in the jail, even while his hand was in a cast and writing was difficult, the complaint says. The plaintiffs say two inmates in wheelchairs were housed in an area without safety bars in the showers, and other inmates had to help them bathe and use the toilet.

· Failure to protect prisoners from violence.

Plaintiff Sarab Sarabi suffered a serious leg injury when he was attacked by another inmate and knocked unconscious, the suit alleges, and now has a "mobility impairment."

Sheriff Scott Miller, who had not seen the complaint Friday but has read an earlier demand letter detailing similar allegations, said he and other county officials disagree with a number of contentions by the plaintiffs.

He said the demands were "short on specifics."

"It's our opinion that the medical care at the Monterey County Jail is adequate, and we've been presented with no evidence to indicate otherwise," he said.

The original letter did not name the inmates, so he was not able to look into their individual cases, he said.

"Virtually none of those medical situations were ever brought to my attention until the letter," Miller said. "We asked for specific information about who these pertained to ... and those names were not provided."

He said he has been working hard to address overcrowding and the problems it brings ever since taking office, "both for the safety of the inmates as well as the safety of our staff."

Steps taken by Miller and the county include shortening jail time with good behavior credits and electronic monitoring, and adding beds by transferring up to 80 long-term inmates to the Alameda County Jail. He is also building a new wing onto the jail.

"We realized the jail was overcrowded, that overcrowding can create problems, so we went to Sacramento and received funding for $36.25 million for an expansion that's currently meeting its timeline for construction," Miller said. "It's our goal to always do our best to provide a safe environment for the staff and the inmates."

He said he expects to see an increasing need for medical care in the jail because more "lower level" inmates are serving long sentences under state prison realignment.

He said it's ironic that realignment is a result of the long-running litigation backed by the same San Francisco Bay Area law firm that filed the case against the jail.

"It seems that our in-custody medical cases have been exacerbated due to realignment," Miller said. "We haven't quantified it yet, but that seems to be the trend. It used to be when you were in county jail for six or eight months, you didn't need the full range of medical services."

Despite having filed a lawsuit that could ultimately lead to federal oversight of the jail's medical care, Egar said he hopes to avoid a courtroom battle.

But he does insist on an agreement to make changes that is backed up by court order.

"We continue to hope we can sit down as soon as possible and begin to come up with an objective and enforceable agreement instead of litigation," he said. "Our desire is to correct these problems through meaningful and prompt negotiations."

County Counsel Charles McKee was unavailable for comment Friday afternoon, but Miller said he has been willing to meet all along.

"We invited them to sit down with us," he said. "We'd be more than happy to sit down with them. Let's find out what the ground rules are."